Public Safety

Residents who have been evacuated due to a fire along the El Paso-Pueblo County line can start returning to their homes, with the exception of three locations. The fire, which started Friday on Fort Carson near a training exercise, has burned 3300 acres and is 80% contained as of late afternoon Saturday.

7:00 p.m.: In a press briefing Friday evening, officials confirmed that several structures have been lost in the fire, but said no loss of life or injury has been reported. El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder said most of the threatened structures are believed to be safe at this point, and that fire crews are focused now on extinguishing the blaze. He said he hopes the fire will be out before midnight.

A spokesperson for Fort Carson explained that the blaze -- which was sparked on Fort Carson and joined up with another flare up that started in the area yesterday -- began in the vicinity of a training exercise that was being conducted on post. He added that the training was necessary and could not have been delayed, despite red flag fire conditions in the region Friday.

In his first formal policy response to the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last month, President Trump is setting up a federal commission to explore school safety. He's also endorsing legislation to improve background checks, and urging states to pass laws temporarily keeping guns out of the hands of people judged to be dangerous to themselves or others.

A policy proposal unveiled Sunday evening has Trump renewing his support for arming teachers and other school employees on a volunteer basis. He stopped short of endorsing a higher age limit for would-be gun buyers.

The national conversation we’re having on guns is particularly painful in Colorado, where Columbine and Aurora are still active wounds. And like the rest of the country, this Mountain West state is deeply divided over what measures to take.

Colorado’s Capitol, like 28 other statehouses across the country, has security checkpoints at public entrances. There are metal detectors that visitors and lobbyists must pass through under the watchful eyes of State Patrol officers, who are there to protect everyone in the building and keep illegal guns and other weapons out. But for some, the security is too much.

Authorities released more information Tuesday about the circumstances and victims of a shootout in Colorado Springs that left El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy Micah Flick dead, and three other law enforcement officers wounded.

34-year-old El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy Micah Flick, an 11-year-veteran of the department, was killed Monday afternoon as law enforcement officers investigated a stolen vehicle in east Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs Police have arrested 31-year old Neal Joseph Arnceneaux in connection with an incident that kept areas of northeast Colorado Springs cordoned off Friday afternoon and into the night.

The initial incident occurred after CSPD responded to a domestic violence call Friday around 3:40 p.m. on Union Blvd., says Lt. Howard Black. He says shots were exchanged between the suspect and police. No one was hit.

Pueblo property owners will see a 35% increase next year in the fees they pay to repair and maintain the aging Arkansas River levee. Construction costs to update the levee are higher because the levee extended deeper into the riverbed than expected.

Governor John Hickenlooper wants the state to reevaluate how it inspects oil and gas wells in the wake of a fatal home explosion in Firestone. An oil and gas flow line was found to be severed and leaking methane and other gases. Two people died and another was critically injured in the explosion.

Colorado energy regulators are trying to quell the public's fears after a house built near an oil and gas well exploded, killing two men. The explosion happened in the small community of Firestone, thirty miles north of Denver, where oil and gas wells are common. State officials are still investigating the explosion and don't know what caused it.

Neighborly disputes are nothing new. There’s the dog next door that poops on your lawn. The house that throws loud backyard parties. The guy down the block who always plows through the stop sign.

But in Colorado, the introduction of legal, home-grown marijuana has elevated tension among neighbors to a whole new level.

Because of gaps in the state constitutional amendments that legalized cultivation of the drug for recreational and medical purposes -- and in the ensuing rules that sought to regulate it further -- some rural pockets in Colorado are seeing large-scale cooperative marijuana grow operations sprout up with little oversight.

There are plenty of things that lead to distracted driving along Colorado’s roadways: eating, putting on makeup or changing the station on your radio. Texting and driving is one distraction state lawmakers want to crack down on.

Extreme winds in southern Colorado Monday prompted the closures of the El Paso County Courthouse and Cheyenne Mountain State Park. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) also placed restrictions on high profile commercial vehicles on El Paso County roads. The department also barred the vehicles, including semi- and tractor- trailers, from Interstate 25 between Monument and the New Mexico state line after multiple rollover accidents. This restriction was lifted around 7:40 Monday evening.

About three years ago, flood waters rushed down the Big Thompson River through Estes Park and eastward to Loveland, destroying whole stretches of the river channel and adjoining roads. That flood echoed a similar one 40 years ago that killed 144 people, destroyed countless homes and decimated the riverbed. Now, roads are being repaired and the eco-system is slowly recovering. That recovery is crucial for the economy of local communities.

Flux Capacitor, a warehouse music venue that has become a fixture in the Colorado Springs music scene over the last two years, announced Monday that the city's fire department ordered it to close its doors. The move comes amidst a nationwide crackdown on unsanctioned, artist-run event spaces--often referred to as "DIY" venues--in the aftermath of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which claimed the lives of 36 people earlier this month.

Residents of the Eagle Springs Ranch Subdivision and the Greenwood Subdivision from County Road 390 to mile marker 24 in Custer County are now allowed back into their homes. The Custer County Office of Emergency Management says residents must pick up re-entry passes sometime between 3:00-8:00 today at the Wetmore Volunteer Fire Station located at 200 CR 290 in Wetmore. Proof of residents and identification is required. Re-entry will begin at 5 PM.

Highway 96 will open to thru traffic from McKenzie Junction to Wetmore at 3 PM.

Evacuations are being lifted after a fire broke out near the Rampart Reservoir. The fire has burned about 14 acres, and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office says it's now being worked jointly with the Forest Service.